Off the back of his 2018 debut’s success, YoungstaCPT returns with a collaboration album with the talented Cape Town based producer Shaney Jay, Dreams Don’t Pay Bills (DDPB).
3T (Things Take Time), his debut album,cemented him as a major force to be reckoned with in South African hip hop. That release culminated with his triumph at the South African Hip Hop Awards 2019, where he won Album of the Year. Three years later, he is back again with a project whose titular sentiments are self explanatory.
Speaking on the new album, YoungstaCPT says, “This project is designed to provide the motivation to people to get up and hustle harder. After all, dreams are just dreams, until you action them [sic] and put them into practice.” Important to mention is that YoungstaCPT is paying it forward by giving Shaney Jay such a grand opportunity to guest star with him on the project.
On the title track “Dreams Don’t Pay Bills”, he raps cold truths such as, “We are dreamers and we think ahead/ I think of what I could’ve been instead/ A college graduate who studied meds/ A gang member who would be shot and dead…” juxtaposing two eventualities that aren’t that far from each other, when it comes to the destiny most youth from Cape Town are faced with.
He also raps, “You thought that you could live up in a shell?/ But you’re gonna have to pace yourself as well/ You have to let them know you have a gift/ And show them what’s inside your bag of tricks/ ‘Cause no one cares saying you’re the dopest/ If you’re the only one who really knows it…” contending with the reality that most rappers of his ilk go through – being genuinely dope but not getting the shine they deserve. Ultimately, YoungstaCPT is incredibly self-aware with this project. He acknowledges that noble as it is to acknowledge that pursuing hip hop is largely a dream come true, one doesn’t have to rest on their laurels. Instead, one has to be honest enough to say, ‘Yes this is a dream but I have to eat and in order to eat I have to work hard and get paid.’. Hip hop can still be a meaningful pursuit done with integrity but getting money is equally as important because dreams don’t pay bills.
Listen to DDPB below:
